Author: Stephen Taylor

Here’s what the new Liberal lawn signs are going to look like

(Thanks Warren!)

Now, of course, an election is only a “rumour”. However, Richard Mahoney, the Liberal candidate featured on the lawn sign above, is set to run in the Ottawa-Centre by-election on November 29th. The election date for Ottawa-Centre has been declared, so this allows us a sneak peek at the Liberal lawn signs.

First Impressions? The Liberal strategists, as I’ve said before, are pushing “Team Martin”.

Liberal? No! It’s Team Martin!

Has “Liberal” become such a bad word in the mouths of Canadians that even the Liberals are ashamed to identify themselves as such? Will the Liberal/Team Martin candidates be running on the Liberal record or the Paul Martin record or aren’t the two one and the same?

Sadly, I feel that this election is going be about the ‘cult of the leader’; It’s Paul Martin vs. the Harper-MacKay ticket vs. Jack “the shin bruiser” Layton. Personalities over policies… how sad.

Paul Martin will be saying “Look at me, I’m cleaning up Ottawa”. Stephen Harper will, at least, be attacking the Liberal team for making the mess and Jack Layton will be figuring out clever and catchy ways of articulating his classic rhetoric.

The Conservatives will do well to campaign as a team instead of solely as Stephen Harper. The leadership bids of Tony Clement and Belinda Stronach were able to cast a larger net over the minds of Canadians. If we push our team as the unified party, we will capture the interest of more Canadians. This strategy will stand in stark comparison to “Team Martin”, which is an ironic term in itself; if the Liberals were a team, they would be referred to as the Liberal party.

I came accross this funny video clip today and it comes from the Late Show with David Letterman. In the clip, U.S. President George W. Bush gives a speech at a Florida rally. However, as most political speeches are orchestrated at rallies, a crowd of supporters is usually herded behind the speaker applauding and/or nodding at remarks made during the speech. The support crowd is all about the image of support and agreement with the speech, of course. However, in a lapse in image awareness on behalf of the American president’s staff, a 14 year old boy stood behind the president during the entire speech and yawned, fidgeted, checked his watch and even appeared to have fallen asleep at one point.

Politics can’t be thrilling all of the time after all. However, it was a rally…

Here’s the video clip

(Link courtesy of MetaFilter)

We’ve been hearing little bits and pieces of information surrounding Denmark’s audacious aggression in claiming sovereignty on Canadian soil. After all, at first it sounds like a joke: Petite, aggressive European Nation dares fly its flag over Hans Island. Alas, it appears to be true (yes, this story has me questioning the veracity of the Canadian print media — more than usual that is).

Has our proud nation really slipped this far whereas a small country such as Denmark (of all places) asks itself, “Why not? What’s Canada going to do about it?” Sure, this territorial dispute may be seen as some as two squabbling kids in the backseat of the world with Denmark saying, “Look at what I’m doing, I’m on your side.” However, as limited as this dispute actually is, Denmark has blatantly, and with impunity, infringed upon our sovereignty. Would they even think of doing this on American territory?

Why is American sovereignty seen as impregnable while the redefinition of Canadian sovereignty need not require a second thought?

And where is our ambassador to Denmark throughout all of this mess? While the Liberals thought that it might be a good idea to tuck him away in some European country, he’s now back and at the centre of the Sponsorship Scandal. Ironic is that the money that the Liberals siphoned away could have been used on our military to deter challenges to our sovereignty. Meanwhile, we do not, at present, have an ambassador to Denmark.

Therefore, I do submit my services to the Prime Minister and to the people of Canada to immediately serve as Canada’s ambassador to Denmark. An abridged resume is posted below.

1) I don’t steal
2) I read the newspapers so I do know something about this and that

Now, the above two items should better qualify me for this post than Mr. Gagliano. Sadly however, these qualifications may actually disqualify me.